Category metrics

This guide explains how to use the Category tab to monitor category performance and find your top-performing pages.

What the Category tab shows

The Category tab displays performance for the category pages your shoppers are browsing. It combines metric cards, a chart, and a categories performance table.

By default, the cards, chart, and table cover all category traffic. Use Custom scope to narrow every card, chart, and table to a defined set of categories.

See the Performance dashboard overview to work with the date range, trends, metric comparisons, and exports.

Metric cards

The Category tab displays the key metrics for all category traffic. To work with the cards:

• Select Show more metrics to expand the full metric set.
• Select the information icon next to a metric name to view its definition and formula.
• Select the download icon to export the one-time CSV data.

Metrics chart

The chart plots your selected metrics over the selected period.

Categories performance table

The categories performance table shows which category pages drive the most traffic, revenue, and conversions. Sort by any column, and turn on Show trends to display period-on-period change.

Drill down into a category

Select any category in the table to open a detailed view for that category, including its revenue trend over time. The drill-down includes:

• Metric cards scoped to that category.
• A chart.
• A performance table for the items driving that category.
• A Brands table that shows which brands drive the category.
• A Sources of sale table that shows where the category's products sell across your site.
• A Breakdown by device section that splits the category's performance by device.
• Previous and Next tables in the Visitor journey section, which show what shoppers viewed before and after this category. The tables work the same way as for queries, scoped to this category. See Analyze previous and next paths.

For example, for the category shoes, see which products drove the most revenue.

Analyze brand performance

The Brands table groups the category's products by brand and adds up their product page views, add-to-carts, conversions, and revenue. Use it to find the brands that drive a category and the ones that underperform. The table works like the other performance tables.

See where category products sell

A product can belong to a category but sell through search queries, related categories (parent or child), the homepage, or other sources. The Sources of sale - Aggregated table shows where the category's converted products were sold, so you can see which parts of your site sell that category.

Each row shows a source, the conversions and revenue it generated for the category's products, and one of these source types:

• Category: Another category, such as a parent or child category.
• Homepage: Your homepage.
• Others: Any other source, such as a product page.
• Query: A search query.

Compare performance by device

Breakdown by device shows the category's metric cards and chart for each device. Select the Desktop, Mobile, Tablet, or Other tab to see how the category performs on that device. Other covers all traffic that isn't desktop, mobile, or tablet.

Drill down by device

View performance metrics for all category traffic by device type: desktop, mobile, tablet, and other. Other covers all traffic that isn't desktop, mobile, or tablet.

Build category reporting use cases

Find underperforming category pages

Spot categories with strong traffic but weak conversion.

1. Build a custom filter. For example, Visits greater than 500 and Conversion rate less than 2%.
2. Save it to track those categories over time.

Find highest-bounce categories

Rank category pages by bounce rate to find the weakest browsing experiences. With no filter applied, sort the categories performance table by Bounce Rate for sessions, highest first.

Track newly launched category

Group new or seasonal categories and watch them as a set.

1. Create a custom scope for the categories you introduced.
2. Set the Current period to the category's launch date. The comparison auto-selects the prior window.
3. Monitor the trends through launch.

Track category ranking-rule change

See how re-ranked category pages performed after the change.

1. Create a custom scope for the affected categories with the is operator.
2. Set the Current period to the rule's launch date. The comparison auto-selects the prior window.
3. Monitor the trend.

For a pre/post view of a change, open the rule in the Impact measurement tab.

Find top products in a category

See which products drive a category, ranked your way.

1. Select a category to open its drill-down.
2. Sort the participating products table by the metric column that signifies top performance for your needs.

Find the top brands in a category

See which brands drive a category's metrics.

1. Select a category to open its drill-down.
2. In the Brands table, sort by Revenue or Conversions, highest first.

Find where a category's products sell

See whether a category's products sell through related categories (parent or child), search queries, or other sources.

1. Select a category to open its drill-down.
2. In the Sources of sale - Aggregated table, sort by Revenue, highest first.

Find what shoppers search for after a category

See which searches shoppers run after browsing a category, to spot products they couldn't find there.

1. Select a category to open its drill-down.
2. In the Next table under Visitor journey, keep Session selected.
3. Filter the table by Type is Query, and sort by Occurrences, highest first.